Below:

Next story in Space

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lit up the night sky over Florida
Tuesday (Dec. 3) in a landmark communications satellite mission
that catapulted the private spaceflight company into the
commercial launch business.

The
upgraded Falcon 9 rocket launched into space from SpaceX's
pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on a mission
to deliver the 3.2-ton SES-8 communications satellite into orbit.
The liftoff at 5:41 p.m. EST (2241 GMT) marked SpaceX's first
entry into the large commercial satellite market and its first
launch into a geostationary transfer orbit needed for such a
mission.

"We've had a great launch today," SpaceX Falcon 9 product manager
John Insprucker said just after liftoff.

Another major milestone for SpaceX occurred 27 minutes after
liftoff, when the two-stage Falcon 9
rocket reignited its second stage for a maneuver that
delivered the SES-8 satellite into its intended orbit. An attempt
to perform the maneuver during a September test flight of the
upgraded Falcon 9 failed due to a frozen igniter fluid line, a
glitch SpaceX engineers fixed with the addition of insulation to
the affected system.

"Spacecraft separation confirmed!" SpaceX officials wrote in a
Twitter post 33 minutes after launch. "SES-8 is now in its
targeted GEO transfer orbit."

The 6,918-lb. (3,138 kilograms) SES-8 satellite was placed in a
transfer orbit that ranges between 183 miles (295 kilometers)
above Earth at its nearest point and 49,709 miles (80,000 km) at
its highest point. The satellite is a hybrid Ku-and Ka-band
spacecraft built to provide high-definition telecommunications
services to SES World Skies customers across the South Asia and
Pacific region.

The smooth launch is a landmark achievement for SpaceX's plans to
provide reliable and affordable launch services to commercial
satellite operators and government space agencies.

SpaceX has
already demonstrated the dependability of its baseline Falcon 9
rocket with the repeated launch success of its unmanned Dragon
space capsule. Today's mission marked SpaceX's seventh Falcon 9
launch since 2010, all of them successful.

The Hawthorne, Calif.-based company has a $1.6 billion deal with
NASA to launch its unmanned Dragon capsule on 12 cargo delivery
missions to the International Space Station; two of these
missions have already flown. The company is also developing a
manned version of Dragon to ferry astronauts to and from the
International Space Station.

But to launch commercial satellites, SpaceX upgraded the
224.4-foot (68.4 meters) Falcon 9 rocket to boost its
capabilities. The rocket's nine-engine first stage was modified
with new SpaceX Merlin 1D engines that provide more thrust than
their predecessors. The rocket has a larger 17-foot (5.1 m)
payload fairing to fit even the largest satellites inside, and
boasts a triple redundant avionics system for reliability,
company officials said.

The first Falcon v1.1 launched on Sept. 29 from SpaceX's pad at
Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on a mission that
successfully carried the CASSIOPE space weather tracking
satellite into orbit for the Canadian Space Agency.

SpaceX engineers also changed the configuration of the
first-stage engines, which were in a three-by-three block, into a
circular "Octaweb" pattern with eight engines encircling the
ninth to increase reliability and streamline its manufacturing
process, company officials said.

SpaceX has also outfitted the upgraded Falcon 9's first stage
with heat shielding and a restart capability as part of its
ongoing project to develop a completely
reusable rocket launch system.

"We've done everything we can think of to maximize the
reliability of this launch system," Musk told reporters on Nov.
24, one day before the first launch attempt. "We're really happy
with this rocket design, and it's an incredibly capable vehicle."

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets are named after the fictional
Millennium Falcon spaceship from the "Star Wars" films. The
Dragon spacecraft are named after the fictional Puff the Magic
Dragon, SpaceX officials have said.